


Special Delivery

by mattzerella_sticks



Category: Justice League Action (Cartoon)
Genre: Angry Zatanna, Christmas, Christmas Party, Embarrassed Bruce Wayne, Grumpy Bruce Wayne, M/M, Mistletoe, Misunderstandings, Oblivious Barry Allen, Public Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 12:04:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21355981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mattzerella_sticks/pseuds/mattzerella_sticks
Summary: Zatanna had questions. Namely how Barry Allen could carry Batman bridal style and not be immediately destroyed.With the encouragement of some eggnog, she sets out - with Diana - to figure out the mystery! Batman might have learned a few tricks from her family, but she picked up some things, too. And no amount of stubbornness will keep her from answers.Day 6 of Batflash Week - Holidays and Justice League
Relationships: Barry Allen/Bruce Wayne, Bruce Wayne & Zatanna Zatara, Diana (Wonder Woman) & Zatanna Zatara
Comments: 11
Kudos: 107
Collections: Batflash Week 2019





	Special Delivery

**Author's Note:**

> I also had this one written a while back, based on the Christmas ep of Justice League Action and that one scene - I highly recommend just watching that clip lol
> 
> Enjoy!

Zatanna swirls her eggnog in her glass, squinting across the room at a familiar figure. Unfortunately Diana blocks her path, leaning down to meet her face to face. “Zatanna,” she says, “is there anything wrong?”

“No,” she starts, then winces, “Well… yes, but nothing serious. I’m only thinking…”

“What are you thinking about?” Diana asks, “Maybe I can help?”

Rolling her thoughts on her tongue, Zatanna wonders about voicing her confusion. Having another person to bounce theories off of is always a help, but there’s always the chance someone else might hear. Especially the person they’d be talking about. The first letter of his name would barely pass her lips and he would turn his serious gaze her way. His supernatural sense of hearing was a magic Zatanna couldn’t understand even after all the time they spent together.

Zatanna’s overwhelming curiosity wins out, and she spills her mind to Diana. “Remember earlier, when the Flash burst in with Batman in his arms?” Diana nods, so she continues. “That was weird, right?”

“How so?”

“Well, _ Flash _ was carrying _ Batman _…” Her friend remains unresponsive and lost. “Seriously? Nothing?”

“It was the only way to get him to come,” Diana shrugs, “what’s so confusing about that?”

“Everything!” Zatanna cries, “I mean, how do you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Pick Batman up like that?”

“I think it’s easy enough, isn’t it?” Diana says, going through the motions in a lazy imitation of lifting a man. “Yeah, it would kinda be like that, right?”

“Maybe if it was Arrow, or _ Superman _ ,” Zatanna scoffs, “But this is _ Batman _. He has a tissue in his hand a full minute before your nose scrunches to sneeze. He’d be able to clear the room the second someone approaches.”

Diana taps at her chin. “The Flash is very fast, though.”

“Not fast enough to catch Batman unaware,” she argues.

Rolling her eyes, Diana turns away from her. “Why don’t we ask _ Flash _ how he did it,” she says, waving a hand, “Flash! Can you come over here?”

He zips over, puff ball on the tail of his santa hat batting him in the face. “What do you need?”

Before Zatanna can tell Diana what a bad idea it is, the Amazonian princess speaks over her. “How did you bring Batman here?”

Barry frowns and tilts his head; whacking himself, again, with the puff ball. “I, uh, carried him?”

Zatanna sighs. “No, we mean… how did you pick him up?”

“Really? That’s what you’re confused about?” Barry snorts, “I just…” Like Diana, Flash mimes grabbing Batman and hefting him into his arms. “And dashed on over here. Easy, right?”

Ignoring Diana’s smug expression, Zatanna slaps the imaginary Bruce out of Barry’s grip. “No! That’s not what we’re talking about. We meant… how did Batman _ let _ you pick him up?”

“Let me?”

“Yeah,” Zatanna says, “He’s Batman. Batman wouldn’t let _ anyone _carry him around like that.”

“You kidding?” Barry scoffs, “I do that all the time!”

“What?” Diana asks, now rising to the level of perplexion Zatanna rested comfortably at longer than she wanted. “You mean this wasn’t the first instance?”

“No?” he says, “The first happened so long ago… we were working a case and Captain Cold froze his Batmobile. So I carried him to the Rogues’ Lair and then home. After that I would go and grab him whenever I needed him. Didn’t seem to mind… although tonight he did. Makes sense why he got all growly though, if no one else knew…” Barry mutters to himself, walking away and over to the eggnog bowl.

Zatanna sags against the wall, sipping her own glass. “Was that the answer you were hoping for?”

“I must admit,” Diana says, “I didn’t foresee opening a Pandora’s Box when calling him over.”

She turns her head, finding Bruce’s figure once more. He stands, trapped by Ollie’s overzealous chattering and cornered like a wounded animal. Dinah interrupts, dragging her boyfriend away from Bruce. Reprieved momentarily, Zatanna can see him scouting for an exit. Zatanna won’t let him go easily.

“Follow me,” she tells Diana, downing the rest of her eggnog and slamming it onto a nearby table. Zatanna stalks over to Bruce, Diana behind her. Bruce takes one step forward when she puts a hand to his chest. “We need to know something.”

“Zatanna, Wonder Woman,” he greets them, “I’m not really in the mood to answer any -”

“How did you let Flash pick you up like that?”

Clearly ruffled, Bruce thins his lips into his usual scowl. “I’m not going to give you a demonstration -”

“No,” she interrupts him again, “that’s not what I asked and you know it. So answer me.”

He crosses his arms. “I don’t have to.”

“Not even if I invoke the code of honor between illusionists?” Zatanna threatens, delighting in how stiff Bruce’s posture became.

It was a low move, drawing from their shared path. The year he spent following her and her father around learning all he could about escape artistry. Nights spent where she watched him pick lock after lock and sharing drinks she snuck out of her father’s minifridge. Illusionist’s code of honor meant that there should be no secrets between those who trained and studied together. However in this context it doesn’t hold much weight, pertaining more to hidden tricks. Although Zatanna will argue that Barry carrying Bruce is a stupendous feat all on its own. And Zatanna deserves to know how he pulls it off.

“I don’t have to tell you anything,” he growls, glaring down at her. Zatanna doesn’t back away, matching his expression with a fierce one of her own.

Diana breaks them up, stepping between them and forcing them apart. “Really? Haven’t we gotten into enough fights already tonight?”

“Tell that to Batman!” Zatanna says, “It’s not a hard question to answer.”

“Like I said, I don’t have to answer it if I don’t want to,” Bruce tells them. She wants to hound him further, only stopping as she notices the blush edging past the lines of his cowl. Shocked, Zatanna processes this new information and adds it to the other pieces of the puzzle she can’t make sense of.

“Zatanna?” Diana asks, drawing her out from her head, “Are you okay?”

Bruce huffs over her, attempting to shove through Diana. “I should be getting back to the Cave -”

“You stay there,” Diana says, “Even if you don’t wish to answer us you should still apologize to Zatanna.”

She notices a faint golden glow highlighting Bruce’s chest, and he sneers at them. “Why should I have to apologize? Zatanna was trying to make me admit how much I like it when Barry holds me -” Bruce’s eyes widen and he glances below to see Diana’s lasso pressed against his leg.

Across the room Clark chokes on a cookie and Kara’s glass shatters in her hand. Zatanna’s gaze stays trained on Bruce.

“What?” Zatanna asks, “What was that?”

Bruce flies back, cape pulled tight over his body to hide it. “You,” he starts, blush creeping from behind his mask to blanket his cheeks, “This is… why did you…” 

Diana apologizes. “It was accidental, honest.” Then, she steps closer and lays a hand on Bruce’s shoulder. Follows through even when Bruce flinches away from her. “It’s okay, Batman. Really. If that’s how you feel -”

“We’re not talking about it,” Bruce says through clenched teeth. She tries to continue only for Bruce to shut her down again. “_Please_.”

The soft, begging tone tugs at Zatanna’s mercy and she reigns Diana in. “Bruce,” she whispers, “I didn’t mean… if I knew it was because of _ that _ -”

“You’d still want to know,” Bruce growls at her, “cause a scene and make this more embarrassing for me than it already is. Like during the afterparty for you dad’s show in Cairo -”

“Bruce I was barely a teenager then,” she defends herself, “how was I supposed to know you were flirting with that girl. It looked like you were trying to not crap yourself!”

“So magicking my drink into Pepto Bismol was the right call?”

“I might have also snuck a champagne flute, so?”

“Whatever,” Bruce waves her off, “you have your answer. I’m going to leave before I have to give away any more of my dignity than I already have.”

Spinning on his heel, Bruce stomps away. Zatanna watches him leave with contempt, having collected the goodwill he snubbed. Luckily, in Bruce’s fit, he didn’t notice the figure creeping up behind until Bruce slammed into him. She saw and said nothing.

“Batman,” Barry sighs, smiling awkwardly, “where are you going?”

“Out,” he mutters, not meeting Barry’s searching stare, “Leaving…”

“Hey,” the other hero asks, “before you do, can I speak to you for a moment? Maybe somewhere private…?”

Private wouldn’t work, since Bruce would escape whenever Barry looked away. They needed a reason to stay, and she gave them one.

“Eotelsim raeppa evoba rieht sdaeh.”

A bit of glitter falls over them, causing both men to glance upwards. Zatanna smirks, clearing her throat. “Looks like we’ve caught two someone’s under the mistletoe!”

Bruce whips around to glare at her, fire burning behind the white lenses of his cowls. She shrugs, uncaring to the domino she knocked over. It tumbles into a row of them now that the party gathers around the men, blocking them in.

Barry frowns, still staring at the mistletoe. “That wasn’t there earlier…”

“It wasn’t,” Bruce says, “and I’m not going to engage in something so juvenile -”

“Oh c’mon Batman,” Eel O’Brien cries from the sidelines, “don’t be such a party pooper. Sure it’s not Wonder Woman, but Flash doesn’t have any cooties!”

The other heroes start chanting for them to kiss, Zatanna enjoying the sight of Bruce simmering with frustration. Diana leans towards her, “Is this wise?” she asks, “Won’t Batman retaliate in some way?”

“He’ll just give me the silent treatment and that’s that,” Zatanna tells her, “Nothing else will happen.”

But then Bruce surprises her. “Fine,” he says, “if it’ll get you all to stop.” Bruce grabs Barry’s face and drags him into a kiss, surprising everyone in the room. Barry’s eyes widen and then slowly drift close, knees knocking together. When Bruce pulls away the room remains silent. “What?” he barks, “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Uh, well,” Clark chuckles, rubbing his neck, “you could’ve… kissed his _ cheek _.”

Face fully red, Bruce’s lips disappear into a shaky line. He says nothing as he shoulders past Courtney and Ronnie towards the door. Oliver doesn’t stop him, jaw hanging wide open. Dinah, thankfully, takes the reigns of the party. “I think we have a photobooth in the back by the tree, if anyone wants to take some pictures?”

The group slowly shuffles over towards the tree, leaving Barry, Zatanna, and Diana.

Barry stays lost in his trance, fingers ghosting over where Bruce kissed him. Zatanna studies him and understands exactly what goes through his mind. She moves towards him, startling him out of his trance.

“Zatanna,” he gasps, “what -”

“You know,” she smirks, “Batman needs a ride home.”

It takes longer than it should for the dots to connect for Barry. When they do, his body crackles with electricity and his face brightens. “You’re right!” Then he dashes out the door, santa hat forgotten on the floor.

Diana walks up behind Zatanna, laughing. “Being nice to make up for all that naughtiness?”

Zatanna shrugs. “More like a peace offering. Knowing him I’d find something worse than coal in my stocking on Christmas morning. Or maybe,” she smiles at the door, warmth settling in her chest, “I’m giving him the one gift he _ needs _.”

**Author's Note:**

> What'd you think? Drop a kudos/comment below and let me know!


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